DiscerningReader.com: Book Reviews

Gladys Aylward

Mark Tubbs — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:55:36 +0000

Reviewed 05/04/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

YWAM Publishing's "Christian Heroes: Then & Now" series is one of those recognizable series that you see almost everywhere and always mean to get into at some point when you are less busy. At a convention last weekend, I simply could not say "no" to the $2 offer on Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime, and polished it off that same day. As introductions into the life of missionaries in decades and centuries gone by, these books are indispensible in growing missions and global awareness in older children and their families.

Gladys Aylward never seemed destined to have the story of her career portrayed in a Hollywood movie starring Ingrid Bergman. The daughter of a working-class London family, education and finances dictated against Aylward's success in pursuing her dream of moving to China to assist an elderly Scottish missionary in her endeavors to live and preach the gospel in locations where it had never before been heard. However, her faith-filled determination paid off, and Aylward spent virtually the rest of her life in Asia, living through and ministering during major upheavals in twentieth-century China.

The husband and wife author team of Janet and Geoff Benge possess at least three obvious qualities: they are competent writers, able researchers, and missions-minded. But I am left with one niggling critique: the subtitle of this book could have been so much more. The worn-out phrase "Adventure of a Lifetime" does not do the contents justice. Other books in this series feature fresh and inspiring subtitles; why not this one?

Almost a week after reading this book in the space of one day, fresh on my mind is now God uses both men and women on the missions field in so many amazing and unpredictable ways. Gladys Aylward is a case in point. All the times that she almost died, or could have been imprisoned, or received an answer to prayer at the last moment, demonstrate how God is truly working all things together for good, for his glory.

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Grow in Grace

Mark Tubbs — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:47:02 +0000

Reviewed 04/22/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

Bibline. Clear. Concise. Orthodox. All these adjectives and more describe Grow in Grace, one of pastor and professor Sinclair Ferguson's worthy contributions to the ranks of Christian literature. Nothing in it can rightly be called new, but I found Ferguson to be refreshing in his obvious love for the enscripturated Word of God. In Grow in Grace he provides his answer to the question, "how can I grow in the Christian life?"

In four brief sections, Grow in Grace sets out the precedent for Christian growth (Jesus), lays down the theoretical foundation for Christian growth (theology), points to the context for Christian growth (Church), and provides examples of Christian growth (Bible). Ferguson's pleasant style and earnest tone makes for a memorable reading experience.

Ferguson surprised me a little by starting the book off with Jesus as an example of someone who needed to grow in grace. Jesus is assuredly our example in all things, but isn't it true that we default to thinking of him as our example in speech, actions, attitudes, etc.? That he needed to grow in wisdom and knowledge is a fact we tend to gloss over in Luke 2, touched on primarily during the Advent season. After Christmas, faced with the choice of preaching on the Wise Men or Jesus' boyhood, we almost always go for the Wise Men - we three kings of Orient are, far more accessible than that special little Nazarene we would rather keep at arms-length.

Yet, in his clear and uncomplicated fashion, Ferguson is able to remove that spooky pall over Jesus' childhood, showing that "The obedience he gave to God the Father as a seven year old boy was as perfect as the obedience he showed when he willlingly died on the cross and suffered in order to fulfill his Father's will" and that "Jesus had to hack his way through the jungle which our sin had created in order to grow in his obedience to his Father in heaven." Believe it or not, the mental image of Jesus as a sweaty little seven year old mancub with machete in hand, fighting his way through an overgrown jungle, was helpful for me as I considered how Jesus must have had to contend with the same pressures and temptations as we do. He didn't have it any easier than we do after all!

The second section of the book contains the theological principles that you would perhaps expect to open a book such as this one. Here Ferguson tackles topics such as sin, wisdom, fear, adoption, desire, and grace with devotional and doxological fervor. This is not an academic exercise for him, which should be apparent even to the skimmer who fails to read deeply but at least takes note of all the hymn lyrics reproduced herein.

Because the Christian who desires spiritual growth cannot exist in a vaccuum, the third section of the book concerns Church life. Others-centeredness, spiritual giftedness, and some of the instrinsic issues of life together are explored in this section, with the first-century Church in Corinth as a case in negative point.

Finally, Ferguson draws on three biblical examples of believers who grew in grace: Daniel, Peter, and Timothy. These chapters read much like sermons - which is a good thing when the preacher is Sinclair Ferguson! These chapters contain some of the most valuable nuggets in the entire book. Consider these stupendous insights that commend themselves to a variety of pastoral counseling situations:

Spiritual growth is not the same in every Christian. It is not possible neatly to package the ways in which God brings us on to maturity and then suggest that everyone must fit into this pattern. That would be foolish, and it would also be very unbiblical...The 'Daniel Treatment' (if we can call it that) would have been inappropriate in Peter's case. Just so, the 'Peter Treatment' may not be God's pattern of operating in your life. We ought to submit to whatever pattern God uses; to learn from the variety of illustrations in the Bible that he has many patterns. Peter himself liked to speak about 'the multi-coloured grace of God' (1 Pet. 4:10)

Growth in grace sometimes depends on the relatively mundane expedient of knowing ourselves well enough to recognise what are the points of lowest resistance in our lives.

Some Christians appear to go on in their spiritual pilgrimage by leaps and bounds, others by fits and starts, and yet others almost imperceptibly. But spiritual growth is like an iceberg - only part of it can ever be seen above the surface. Someone whose life manifests only small degrees of love, joy, peace, longsuffering and the other fruits of the Spirit may have grown tremendously in grace even to reach that apparently small measure of maturity.

Not all people need the same sight of their own sinfulness to bring them to Christ.

I trust the excerpts above are sufficient to convince of the wealth contained in this little volume. Ferguson ends by turning the focus on the reader in an epilogue entitled "Over to You," which concludes with the simple question, "Are you willing to ask God to help you to grow in grace?" If so, it may be time to turn back to page 1 for a re-read after a word of prayer.

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Silent Voices

Mark Tubbs — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:24:09 +0000

Reviewed 04/15/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

Like authors Ann Sloane and Clive Anderson, who have co-authored one of the many books commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, I recall being mesmerized as an 11 year-old boy by the accounts of her demise in 1912 and her rediscovery in 1985. When a complimentary copy of Silent Voices: Learning from the Titanic recently arrived in the post, it was a foregone conclusion that I would read it and complete it exactly 100 years to the night that Titanic sank with such great loss of life.

Day One's "History Today" series, which at the time of this writing features only five volumes, is not meant to be a historian's resource. Rather, it is a series intended to relate historical persons, places, and events to contemporary life. Without overburdening the reader with too much detail, the books and images capture the reader's imagination, then draw spiritual application from the book's contents. While I have not read the other books in the series, Silent Voices achieved the balance almost exactly right. I say "almost" because I thought the spiritual application, when it came, arrived about two pages prematurely. At the same time, the spiritual application arose so naturally out of the general theme of the book that I imagine most unbelievers reading the book would sense that the discussion flowed quite naturally into matters of faith. And that is what the book seems to be, in large part: a resource to lend or give to unbelieving neighbors or family members as a potential point of dialogue about the things of faith.

But would it be an enjoyable book for a Titanic buff? As to accuracy, I'm happy to report that it does not perpetuate the urban legends that have grown up around the tragedy. However, neither does it scoff at them but often demonstrates how the misunderstandings or misinterpretations came about. While this book won't satisfy a Titanic conspiracy theorist or a hardened atheist, it is an informative and intriguing little book that ends on exactly the right note: as tragic as shipwreck is, how much more tragic to be lost for eternity than to lose one's earthly life?

Editor's note: in North America you may buy this book at Day One Publications' US store.

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Relationships

Mark Tubbs — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:56:17 +0000

Reviewed 04/14/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

A quick search of the terms "must read" and "must-read" on this review site reveals that we have assiduously endeavored to avoid applying this superlative quality to too many books, and even when we have done so, it has always been applied to a certain segment of the church, i.e., pastors or preachers. This run ends today. In Relationships: A Mess Worth Making by Timothy Lane and Paul David Tripp, I can confidently say it is a book that every Christian should read on the threefold basis of theology, applicability, and accessibility.

THEOLOGY

We all need to hold and seek out sound, biblical theology. While it's true that the term "biblical" has been bandied about to an unhealthy and unhelpful degree in the contemporary Western Church, at times even employed as a weapon, it is equally unhealthy and unhelpful to dismiss the term because its true meaning is glorious: adherence to the "norming norms" of Holy Scripture in matters of faith and practice. Relationships is such a book.

Lane and Tripp begin by conducting a half-dozen chapters of theological cartography, defining and describing the lay of the land according to the Bible and in relation to human experience. Not content to relegate relationship issues to the categories of mere conflict management or the untouchable here there be dragons danger zone, the authors instead point to the highest peak on the horizon, that of the redemptive purposes God intends for all relationships. Their message is soaked in a robust theology of grace, which does not minimize hurt on one hand, nor views relationships through rose-colored glasses on the other.

APPLICABILITY

We all participate in relationships. That inalienable reality (for you really do have to be an alien in order to avoid contact with humanity in all its fallen forms, since you are one of those fallen life forms) is why this book is applicable to everyone. We all sin, we all have agendas, we all worship, we all talk, we all struggle to manage time and money, we are all tempted at times to doubt Gods provision. The previous sentence contains half the chapter titles found in the book, by the way.

A third of the way through the book, I began to communicate via thought-waves with the authors: Tim and Paul, this theology of grace is all very nice, but we cant always overlook all offenses. Some just have to be dealt with. They didnt let me down, but they did take a few more chapters before dealing with some of the practicalities of conflict. This is as it should be: a house needs to be framed before stairs to the upper floors are built.

ACCESSIBILITY

We need to read books we can understand. I'm aware of the seeming redundancy of this statement, yet hasnt everyone tried to read a book that has come highly recommended by a source we trust only to find that it fails completely to resonate with our experience and/or that it is written for an audience with a much different vocabulary than we ourselves possess? This isn't the case with Relationships. In fact, it is such an accessible book and is filled to the gills with so much rich teaching that I hereby assume that everyone who reads this review will read the book, and will henceforth expend no more keystrokes on the superb content of this fine book.

Finally, let me note that the book makes fairly heavy use of Eugene Petersons Bible paraphrase The Message and some of Peterson's other works besides. Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz also makes an appearance with one entire paragraph from Miller quoted approvingly, and C.S. Lewis pops in and out fairly regularly. If you don't approve of these authors or disdain The Message paraphrase, then you may want to read this book while holding your nose. For even if the authors quoted aren't to your taste, the rest of the book is a veritable banquet of grace and truth.

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Christians Get Depressed Too

Mark Tubbs — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:56:46 +0000

Reviewed 04/12/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

David P. Murray has it exactly right: depressed people cannot usually read a book running to hundreds of pages - even if the book is about their very own condition. Murray, a former pastor and current professor who has ministered to many depressed people and who teaches seminary-level counseling, offers 112 pages entitled Christians Get Depressed Too as a primer and an emergency guide for depressed Christians and those who minister to them.

Speaking of those who minister to depressed people, all too often depressed Christians are on the receiving end of that which they do not need. Well-meaning platitudes, admonishments to remain stoic, lectures on the danger of medications, and interrogations about unconfessed sin usurp the place of a kind listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. The first thing to do, says Murray, is to admit that some Christians, both mature and immature, do get depressed. While some scholars stretch the bounds of credibility by reading modern psychological labels back into biblical figures, it is safe to say that both David and Elijah faced bouts of despair...in other words, depression. We should not be surprised, therefore, when we or other believers deal with the same.

Showing his preaching colors, Murray's alliterated table of contents lists various aspects of the depressed condition: Crisis, Complexity, Condition, Causes, Cures, and Caregivers. He closes with a clear and helpful appendix on the suffiency of Scripture:

If all you had in the world was the Bible, you would have enough - you have what is necessary to be saved, to believe, and to live to God's glory in the world. It tells us everything we need to know, but it does not tell us everything there is to know. The Bible does not give us exhuastive knowledge, but rather comprehensive knowledge, necessary knowledge, sufficient knowledge.

However, I do wonder whether the alliterated sequence Murray chose actually ended up straightjacketing him somewhat. The professorial approach of Chapter 2, "The Complexity," is arguably a step beyond the needs of a depressed person or even a caregiver using the book for its stated use as a "Depression 911" emergency guide or a "Depression 101" primer. This early in the book, most readers will not benefit from the mini-history lesson on Jay Adams and the Biblical Counseling movement. Murray is at his pastoral best when describing the extremes without naming names. Personally, I would have much preferred a discussion of the sufficiency at Scripture appear at this point in the book instead of at the end. Depressed Christians need to be reminded of the comfort and challenge of scriptural teaching right up front.

Another change I would make if I were editor of this book would be to remove a few of the block quotes from Puritan writers (wonderful quotes, but difficult for some readers, especially depressed ones) and use the space to expand on a few broad-brush statements made in the course of the book. I would also liked to have seen some attention paid - if only for a paragraph - to the ancient and enduring metaphor of a Christian enduring despair as living for a time in a spiritual desert. But let me be fair: you simply can't cover everything in only 112 pages.

The book as a whole is full of balanced and informed wisdom seeking to respect the human dignity of the depressed person while at the same time honoring the transforming truths of Holy Scripture. While some critics might say that Murray can't have it both ways, I suspect Murray would answer that we can have it all ways within biblical parameters.

As I complete a final edit of this review before posting, I fear to leave the impression that there is more wrong with this book than right, which is simply not the case. To redeem my disproportionate time and space spent on what I would alter if I were editor, I encourage you to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 in Paul Tautges' interactive review series with David Murray and Christians Get Depressed Too.

In reading this book, depressed Christians will obtain a balanced, caring perspective on their condition, and potential caregivers will gain the impetus to learn more about the condition. Depression is complex, but it does not confound our God - the God of the Bible. We can take refuge in this comforting truth, even if - and especially when - we are depressed.

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Pattern of Wounds

Mark Tubbs — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 05:28:20 +0000

Reviewed 04/03/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

Definitely not for the squeamish, Pattern of Wounds picks up where Detective Roland March left off in Back on Murder, the inaugural book in this mystery series from Bethany House Publishers. If you have not read the first book, do not pass go, do not open the front cover of the second book. A few Amazon reviewers have done so and have paid dearly - they did not enjoy the second book. It is a series and is meant to be read as such. And a fine series it is, thus far.

Roland March, a surly but intriguing Houston Police Department homicide detective, is "back on murder" after redeeming himself in the first book. Patterns of Wounds opens with a brutal murder scene (caveat lector to the sensitive reader) which evokes the mood of the best crime dramas television has to offer.

Where Pattern of Wounds exceeds its predecessor is in its characterization. Whereas I felt a bit alienated from Charlotte, March's wife, and Teresa Cavallo, March's sidekick in Back on Murder, both women evoked a fresh sympathy in me this time around. Similarly, March's own complexities developed further, although he still can't seem to help being a jerk most of the time. Even the secondary characters don't come across as cookie-cutter stock characters; not the TV preacher, not the police lieutenant, not even the busybody neighbor. Only Carter Robb, the young minister, could use more development, which I wouldn't be surprised to see happen in a future Roland March mystery.

Still on the topic of characterization: while I could never accuse March of being a particularly urbane human specimen, I highly enjoyed March's countrified character foil in Roger Lauterbach of the Harris County Sherrifs Department. The majority of the novel chronicles the investigative tussle between serial killer versus lone killer theories in March's current case.

What of "Christian" content? Well, first allow me to disclose that I deplore "Christian" being used as an adjective in most cases. As I explained to a family member yesterday, at his current rate March is still a good thirty years away from a conversion. From where I sit, any undue rush towards a conversion might just undermine the authenticity of the character. I use the term "undue" advisedly, being that I am not the author and have no special insight into the contour and trajectory of March's spiritual condition. We shall see what we shall see in future novels, deo volente.

Appropriately for a review of a mystery novel, I conclude with two mini-mysteries of sorts. Firstly, I was pleasantly surprised by the progress in Roland and Charlotte's relationship after being warned by the back cover blurb of the "growing rift in his marriage." Secondly, could it be that I sighted the author in his tortoiseshell glasses somewhere in the vicinity of Houston's Epicure Caf? I could be wrong.

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Whiter Than Snow

Mark Tubbs — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:48:35 +0000

Reviewed 03/25/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

We tend to like our university or college textbooks and systematic theology volumes neatly packaged and carefully laid out according to topic. We tend to like Bibles featuring concordances and "What to read when..." sections at the back. But the Bible isn't laid out topically and real life isn't straightforward either. Psalm 51, as Paul David Tripp memorably describes it, is the beautiful result of "a tawdry and disgusting story, one you wouldn't read if it were a paperback at your local bookstore." In Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy, Tripp gives the themes of Psalm 51 breathing room to allow its high and low points to sink deeply into the mind, soul, and spirit of the reader.

Tripp, well known for the stand-by Biblical Counseling manuals Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands and How People Change (with Tim Lane), offers up something almost completely new in Whiter Than Snow and its 2009 companion volume from Crossway Books, A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble. "Almost" because those who have read Tripp's other books will have seen glimpses of the writing we experience in Whiter Than Snow. Tripp is as much a poet in these pages as he is a theologian. In the preface he introduces the approach and format of this book as "jazz" based on the "sheet music" of Psalm 51:

While endeavouring to stay inside God's key signature and time signature, I have attempted to introduce to you creative, practical, everyday-life riffs on the themes that make up the music of grace in this wonderful psalm...So, what you have in your hands is devotional jazz, designed to help you improvise more harmoniously with the Great Composer.

Such a lengthy rationale (I have reproduced less than half of it above) invites the question of whether Tripp's approach succeeds in creating a devotional tool whose effect matches its creativity. As one who has undergone advanced training in both music and theology, my answer is in the affirmative. Whether his artistic deployment always works is another question, to which my answer is, "almost always." Poetry, as music, is an extremely subjective medium, but I did not always enjoy the amount of white space in Tripp's free verse poetry. For instance, monosyllabic words should have good warrant for occupying an entire line and should be used sparingly. Again, poetry is a very subjective medium. Each of the 52 meditations, whether poetry or prose, are followed by two "Take a Moment" questions for personal reflection. Many of these questions also lend themselves to group discussion if a small group were to decide it wanted to go through the book in eight or nine weeks at the rate of one meditation per day.

My free verse quibbles aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of meditations. Although I did not meditate on one entry a week for an entire year per its recommended use, I did still benefit from Tripp's musings. I use the word "musings" advisedly, for there is no discernible pattern to the sequence of verses serving as themes for meditation. Devotional jazz, remember. Nevertheless, the collection does progress in its own circular fashion. I found the six prose meditations in the middle of the book to be the richest and most helpful for my own soul. One such excellent meditation is entitled "Wrecking Balls and Restoration," containing echoes of Broken-Down House by the same author.

"It's time for us to embrace, teach, and encourage others with the theology of uncomfortable grace," says Tripp. He exemplifies such an approach in Whiter Than Snow. While you won't find in these pages a discussion of the continuity or discontinuity of David's spiritual experience vis-a-vis the Holy Spirit's pre-Pentecost indwelling and/or infilling (one of my own hobbyhorses, I must admit), you will find Tripp relentlessly ushering you towards a robust theology of God's grace located at the intersection of holiness and mercy. This is the very same intersection where repentant David and his God met in Psalm 51.

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The Next Story

Mark Tubbs — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 06:24:06 +0000

Reviewed 03/20/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

While scrolling through an online bookseller's current sales flyer today, I noted how many of the new Christian Living releases seem to be much of a muchness with other books published over the past decade. On the other hand, Tim Challies' sophomore effort, The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion, is fresh and welcome reading material that ought to be the go-to resource on the topic of faith in the digital age.

Granted, the score is Advantage: Challies when it comes to my interest in reading books about the intersection of faith and technology. The topic doesn't naturally interest me overmuch, even if it really should, so the motivation to read the book was based squarely upon my friendship with Tim. There are another half-dozen Christian books on this topic that probably deserve to be read; I'm just not likely to. Friendship aside, I'm glad to have read this book. My ability to think about faith issues in the digital age has broadened and deepened, despite being disinclined to read most of the books that Challies quotes or plunders for ideas.

Fear of machines' mastery of humankind has been fodder for an endless parade of science fiction movies and scaremongering books throughout the technological age. The Next Story begins with a similar concern, but it is one that arises out of a very different perspective. Asking the questions, "Am I giving up control of my life [to devices]? Is it possible that these technologies are changing me? Am I becoming a tool of the very tools that are supposed to serve me?" Instead of simply accepting the inevitable on one hand, or pulling the sheets over his head and becoming paranoid on the other, Challies instead set out to ask how and why questions of other authors, thinkers, and professionals who have been asking these types of questions as well.

In Part 1 Challies provides a brief biblical theology of technology in Chapter 1 followed by an outline of his approach to thinking about technologies in Chapter 2. His approach goes something like this: if "every technology has embedded deep within it some kind of ideology" then it follows that we sentient users must devote time and energy to pondering what might be the short-term, long-term, societal and spiritual consequences of using our technologies. Challies does this well throughout the book - suggesting manifold implications of technology and offering some application points when they may be useful. Chapter 3 narrates a digital history that Challies obviously enjoyed composing, the history major that he was.

Part 2, comprising the remaining chapters in the book, explore (and I use the word advisedly, for these really are written explorations) various aspects of digital life, from the broad area of Communication to much more specific categories such as Distraction, Information, Truth/Authority, Visibility/Privacy, and the mediatory role of media (did you ever consider they are related words?). As I scan these chapters again, a few days after finishing the book, I see copious margin notes recording my interaction with Challies' text, as well as bracketed sections I found particularly enlightening, and not a few sentences I marked "tweet" - I suppose because they number 140 characters or under and may be helpful to my followers in the Twittersphere at some point.

The chapters themselves are long and meaty, ideal for an uninterrupted half-hour with coffee cup in hand - not too late in the day, mind you. I learned the hard way that The Next Story is not bedtime reading; its ideas and arguments demand mental engagement. If you have read any of Challies' writing, you know that he wrestles before he writes. Rather than casually pitting a proof-text against a problem, he attempts to live out the issue and only then puts fingertips to keyboard. This intersection of integrity between real life and writing life means the reader is enriched by the fruits of deeply-lived experiences, always deeply informed by Scripture.

"Deeply informed by Scripture" seems the right note on which to end this review. I still remember the day Challies mentioned this book was being released in hardcover. Now that I have read The Next Story, I can attest that the book well deserves its hard cover, even if the print age is now in the past.

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The Fort

Mark Tubbs — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 05:48:07 +0000

Reviewed 03/17/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

Historical fiction has the power and the potential to teach the reader much about the human condition. And, of course, it can teach much about events and cultures and lifestyles of bygone decades, centuries, and millennia. In the wrong authorial hands it can co-opt history to advance subversive agendas, but its judicious use can open up a world hitherto undiscovered. In his novel The Fort, prolific author Bernard Cornwell turns his literary guns on the ill-fated Penobscot Expedition of 1779.

Forty years before Maine separated from Massachusetts, a small British expeditionary force was deployed to Majabigwaduce, a small loyalist settlement on Penobscot Bay. It was a strategic area, fortifiable and defendable. The British felt confident in sending only three ships and less than a thousand men to defend it. Once arrived, they began to construct a makeshift fort optimistically and grandly christened Fort George after King George III. While the fort was in the early stages of construction, an American force of 1700 men and over 40 ships arrived to conduct military operations against the British entrenched there. The events and non-events that followed are known as the worst travesty in United States naval history until Pearl Harbor.

As in all Bernard Cornwell novels, the characterization in The Fort is careful and artful. Cornwell tries, and succeeds, in portraying the characters warts and all, without undue castigation or undeserved hagiography. He has done thorough research, and not a single character suffers from under-development. I must say that I did find the characters of Paul Revere and Dudley Saltonstall to be much of a muchness, but this may be due to the reader of the audiobook using the same vocal style for the voices of both officers.

Historical fiction as a genre is perhaps most susceptible to the charge of inaccuracy. After all, this type of writing requires filling in narrative gaps in the historical record. Then again, no historical fiction author worth their salt ever claimed to be entirely factual. The best of these authors study the periods events and ethos rigorously, then lay a compelling and true-to-life narrative over the bare facts. Cornwell is a master at this complicated craft, in my experience. Employing an absolute proliferation of original documents as precursors to each and every chapter, Cornwell has endeavored to synthesize accuracy and artfulness. In my subjective opinion, The Fort is a finer piece of writing than any of Cornwells Sharpe books that I have read to date.

Of course this book will not be appropriate for younger readers, since Cornwell has rendered it as true-to-life as possible without succumbing to gratuity. There is no hint of sex but scads of violence, and the soldiers and sailors speak like soldiers and sailors. No contemporary profanity worse than two B-words appear (and fairly often) but I would warn adolescents below the driving age away from reading The Fort due to the sheer vehemence and bloodthirstiness of some of the minor characters (below driving age because when they are drivers they are likely to hear some of this language on the roads). This is war, after all, and cultivating a hate of the enemy was encouraged. Some of the characters in The Fort are God-fearing and God-honoring, but no exploration of their faith occurs in the pages of this book.

In the end, this book has greatest value for its leadership lessons. As some Amazon reviewers have asked, why compose a narrative around the Penobscot Expedition, rife as it was with non-events and failures to act? To paraphrase and expand the old adage: those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat the actions that led to failure, as well as the non-action that has often led to similar ignominious ends.

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Captains Contentious

Mark Tubbs — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:28:19 +0000

Reviewed 03/13/2012 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended.

Every historical period - including every period in Church history - has had its opportunists and malcontents. In the inventively, alliterated, and metrically entitled Captains Contentious: the Dysfunctional Sons of the Brine, maritime historian Louis Arthur Norton homes in on five notorious and/or celebrated personalities of the Continental Navy in the Revolutionary War era. Citing various incidents and correspondence, Arthur tries to make the case that these five naval officers were unusually "combative, vituperative, and manipulative." Does he succeed? Mostly.

Being Canadian, not one of these famous naval commanders was a household name for me, although I may have heard mention of the dashing John Paul Jones at some point. John Manley, Silas Talbot, and Joshua Barney were entirely new to me. I would not have heard of Dudley Saltonstall if I had not come across him in Bernard Cornwell's The Fort, in which Cornwell paints him in much the same hues as Norton does.

I suppose that any group of human beings, especially a cadre of leaders spearheading a revolutionary war, will feature at least a few strong personalities. Is it suprising, then, that we find such figures in the early Continental Navy? One of these naval officers was actually an army officer, by the way - I'll leave you to discover which one.

Moreover, were they any more dysfunctional or contentious than their British or French or Dutch or Spanish counterparts? Consider, for instance, that the French Navy fired upon their allies the Spanish when fleeing the British at the end of the Napoleonic War. Fairly dysfunctional, I would say. No, I am inclined to agree with Norton's analysis of dysfunctionality among these naval commanders. But I attribute the dysfunction not only due to their individual dysfunctional personalities, but to the system in itself. The dysfunctional system exacerbated their personal dysfunction and vice versa. Of course, the system notwithstanding, the Christian must call sin, sin. Simply put, there was sin in the system and sin in the men.

I greatly enjoyed the content of Captains Contentious. Moreover, the aesthetic experience of reading this book was much enhanced, for me at least, by the pleasant typeface and ideal page color - not too bleached, not too brown. I'm sad to report that although the type of paper is revealed on the copyright page (Glatfelter Natures, a recycled paper with 30 percent postconsumer waste content), the name of the cover designer is not, and is nowhere to be found in the entire book. He or she deserves plaudits for every aspect of the cover, front and back. As does author Norton for his considerable aplomb as a maritime historian.

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